The U.S. Secret Service is investigating a Twitter posting by a Louisville woman who suggested someone could assassinate President Donald Trump. The tweet, according to a screenshot provided to The Courier-Journal , says “If someone was cruel enough to assassinate MLK, maybe someone will be kind enough to assassinate Trump.”
Category: Criminal Defense Law
Trump opponent poised to become California attorney general
In their first official action since Donald Trump became president, California lawmakers are poised Monday to confirm a Democratic nominee for attorney general who has vowed to defend the state’s liberal policies against the new administration and the Republican Congress. Xavier Becerra, who is expected to easily clear this last hurdle in the heavily Democratic Legislature, says he will fight any federal law he believes infringes on the rights of Californians.
Missouri split on longer terms in attacks on police
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Gov. Eric Greitens is pushing to toughen Missouri’s already stiff penalties for attacking a police officer, pleasing many in Missouri’s law enforcement community, which has been on the defensive since a white police officer killed an unarmed black 18-year-old in Ferguson more than two years ago.
Donald J. Trump takes office
Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States Friday, taking command of a riven nation facing an unpredictable era under his assertive but untested leadership. Under cloudy, threatening skies at the West Front of the U.S. Capitol, Trump painted a bleak picture of the America he now leads, declaring as he had throughout the election campaign that it is beset by crime, poverty and a lack of bold action.
Can You Get In Trouble For Sharing Someone Else’s Nude Photo?
There were three pictures: one of half of Sulkin’s face, one of a person’s chest, and one of a person’s penis. Provided the photos are of who the poster says they are, and since they weren’t posted by Sulkin himself, it’s likely they were posted without his consent.
Chicago cop faces murder charges in off-duty shooting
A Chicago police officer was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder in the killing of a man while the officer was off duty, police said. Lowell Houser, 57, allegedly got into an argument with a man who was moving into a home on Chicago’s Northwest Side on January 2. The argument escalated, and Houser allegedly fired multiple shots at the man, Jose Nieves, killing him.
Sheriff’s office often gets leeway with funds, budget
When it comes to asking for money beyond their budget, a department head’s best bet is to be with the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office. Or at least that’s how some members of the commissioners court feel, acknowledging leniency is given to the sheriff’s office because residents want to keep the crime rate down.
Republicans in Minn. Legislature, following Trump, take aim at cities’ immigration policies
President-elect Donald Trump swept to the White House promising to clamp down on illegal immigration and so-called “sanctuary cities” like Minneapolis and St. Paul whose leaders vow not to act as local immigration enforcers. Republicans around the country – including the newly empowered GOP majorities in the Minnesota Legislature – have followed suit, threatening to withhold government aid from cities that decline to work with federal immigration authorities, and represent themselves as safe havens against deportation.
Read the book behind the a Hidden Figuresa movie
The Fresno County Library’s Bookshelf column shares suggestions for books, music, and other items, and provides information about library programs. “Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians who Helped Win the Space Race,” by Margot Lee Shetterly.
Corrupt prison officers deal drugs worth millions of pounds, says former prison governor
John Podmore, a former governor, warned the drugs problem in jails is now so great criminals are joining the prison service just to deal to lags. Mr Podmore, who was also head of the prison service’s anti-corruption unit, described the trade as a “multimillion pound enterprise”.
Report says Chicago police violated civil rights for years
The Justice Department on Friday laid bare years of civil rights violations by Chicago police, blasting the nation’s second-largest department for using excessive force that included shooting at people who did not pose a threat and using stun guns on others only because they refused to follow commands. The report was issued after a yearlong investigation sparked by the 2014 death of a black teenager who was shot 16 times by a white officer.
Takata will plead guilty, pay $1B in airbag coverup
Takata Corp. has agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal charge and will pay $1 billion in fines and restitution for a years-long scheme to conceal a deadly defect in its automotive air bag inflators, federal prosecutors announced Friday, Jan. 13, 2017. At least 11 people have been killed by the inflators in the U.S. and 16 worldwide.
Five reasons why the Justice Department watchdog is probing the Clinton case
An announcement Thursday that Michael Horowitz, inspector general for the Department of Justice, would lead a far-reaching probe into how officials at the Justice Department and the FBI handled an investigation into Hillary Clinton ‘s emails resurrected a controversy that many Democrats had blamed for the loss of their candidate in the presidential race. The year-long criminal investigation of Clinton’s private email network – and whether it compromised classified information from her tenure at the State Department – rankled Republicans and Democrats alike, both in the perfunctory way agents pursued it and the public way the FBI director closed it.
The Latest: No last-ditch appeals for condemned Texas inmate
The attorney for a Texas death row inmate set to die Wednesday evening says she plans no last-minute appeals to try to put off the execution. Hilary Sheard says she’s “alarmed and troubled” that during the entire appeals process in recent weeks only one judge on the nine-member Texas Court of Criminal Appeals acknowledged injustice in the case of condemned killer Christopher Wilkins.
Courtesy: Springfield Police Department
Robertson County sits bordered by multiple counties and the state of Kentucky. That proximity to larger towns and counties lead to some dangerous and violent criminals using the rural communities in the county as a place to not only hideout, but run criminal enterprises.
Volkswagen Executive Arrested for Alleged Role in Emissions a Conspiracya
Volkswagen executive Oliver Schmidt was arrested by the FBI on Saturday for his alleged role in the company’s suspected “scheme” to cheat emissions standards, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Monday. Schmidt, who led the automaker’s U.S. environmental regulatory compliance office from 2012 to 2015, allegedly conspired with other VW employees to defraud the federal government – and American consumers – by concealing the installation of a device designed to cheat emissions tests.
Former Volkswagen Exec Charged With Conspiracy To Defraud US
Oliver Schmidt, who used to serve as the top emissions compliance manager for Volkswagen AG in the U.S., was arrested by the FBI on Saturday, charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States over the company’s diesel emissions cheating scandal. The former executive will appear U.S. District Court in Miami on Monday afternoon.
First on CNN: Matthew Shepard’s mother blasts Trump AG pick…
The mother of Matthew Shepard is urging senators to oppose Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions’ nomination to become President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, citing his opposition to hate crimes legislation. In a report issued by the Human Rights Campaign, Judy Shepard – whose son Matthew was beaten and left to die in Wyoming in 1998 in a crime motivated by anti-gay sentiment – blasted Sessions for opposing the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which President Barack Obama signed into law in 2009.
O.C. legislator overstates law, but his column goes viral
California Republicans face a discouraging dilemma, as GOP numbers wither in the state Capitol. Democrats gained supermajorities in both houses of the Legislature, which leaves the remaining Republicans virtually no power to stop anything and little more than a bully pulpit for their policies.
Judge refuses to release 4 accused of beating disabled youth
A Chicago judge refused to allow four black people caught on cellphone footage taunting and beating a mentally disabled white man to post bail and leave jail, saying they are accused of such “terrible actions” that they are a danger to society. “Where was your sense of decency?” Cook County Circuit Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil asked them on Friday during their first court appearance, sounding baffled that the suspects could be charged with such cruelty toward the 18-year-old victim.
Judge refuses to release 4 accused of beating disabled youth
A Chicago judge refused to allow four black people caught on cellphone footage taunting and beating a mentally disabled white man to post bail and leave jail, saying they are accused of such “terrible actions” that they are a danger to society. “Where was your sense of decency?” Cook County Circuit Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil asked them on Friday during their first court appearance, sounding baffled that the suspects could be charged with such cruelty toward the 18-year-old victim.
Jeff Sessions want us to believe he’s a civil rights champion. He isn’t.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions arrives at the lobby of Trump Tower in New York on Nov. 14, 2016. Sessions has been nominated to be U.S. attorney general.
Obama Denies the MurderWave on his Watch
President Barack Obama used the Harvard Law Review to broadcast his claim that “there is no growing crime wave,” despite the crime wave that has killed 1,500 Americans in 2015 and 2016. His claim that crime has remained “near historic lows,” and his denial of the national murder spike, came in his op-ed published by the Harvard Law Review: “There is no growing crime wave.”
Judge refuses to release 4 accused of beating disabled youth
A Chicago judge refused to allow four black people caught on cellphone footage taunting and beating a mentally disabled white man to post bail and leave jail, saying they are accused of such “terrible actions” that they are a danger to society. “Where was your sense of decency?” Cook County Circuit Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil asked them on Friday during their first court appearance, sounding baffled that the suspects could be charged with such cruelty toward the 18-year-old victim.
Hate-Crime Charges Filed in Attack on Mentally Disabled Man in Chicago
Family spokesman David Boyd and others hold a news conference Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017, in Crystal Lake, Ill., after an 18-year-old man was assaulted in Chicago earlier this week. Four people were charged with hate crimes Thursday in connection with a video broadcast live on Facebook that showed a mentally disabled white man being beaten and taunted, threatened with a knife and forced to drink from a toilet.
‘There was no intent to murder. There was no violence.’ But he’s been locked up 32 years.
NORMAN BRYANT was just 15 on Jan. 29, 1985, when he joined older brother Kenneth and a 14-year-old friend in a burglary of what they believed was an empty house in West Philadelphia. When Kenneth Bryant went upstairs, he found himself face to face with the occupant, Gertrude Jones, 82. He shoved her, then went back downstairs, never mentioning the run-in to the others.
Police: Beating of mentally disabled man on video began after friendly encounter
The two 18-year-olds had been schoolmates, police say. After meeting at McDonald’s, they spent two days together, driving around visiting friends.
Accused infant killer says La.’s non-unanimous jury verdict law unconstitutional
Advocate staff photo by HEATHER MCCLELLAND — Baton Rouge Police Detectives Kwouska Lee, left, and Joseph Lealand, right, escort Larry Leflore on Thursday, June 27, 2013. Leflore has been charged with second-degree murder of his 11-month-old baby, Aaliyah Heard, who died of blunt-force trauma to the head.
Ex-death row inmate in Ohio wants new trial amid new doubts
A one-time death row inmate in Ohio whose sentence was commuted to life in prison has asked a judge for a new trial based on concerns that have surfaced about a former state crime lab worker. Attorneys for Kevin Keith are questioning whether the state forensic expert provided unreliable testimony against him at his 1994 trial.
Ex-Chicago top cop blames Black Lives Matter for surge in murders
Chicago’s disgraced top cop thinks Black Lives Matter is to blame for his city’s sharp surge in violence. Garry McCarthy – who served as the superintendent of the Chicago Police Department for nearly four years before getting fired in 2015 – went on “The Cats Roundtable” radio show on New Year’s Day and accused police brutality protesters of creating a “political atmosphere of anti-police sentiment.”
Federal Hold Up For Gold Card Gun Permits Ina
Issues with the federal government are affecting a new gun permit that went into effect New Year’s Day. It’s called the gold card and it allows South Dakotans who carry it to buy a gun, without having to go through the federal National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS.
US Sen. Warren seeks to pull pot shops out of banking limbo
As marijuana shops sprout in states that have legalized the drug, they face a critical stumbling block – lack of access to the kind of routine banking services other businesses take for granted. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, is leading an effort to make sure vendors working with legal marijuana businesses, from chemists who test marijuana for harmful substances to firms that provide security, don’t have their banking services taken away.
Chicago Paper: Make All Universities – Sanctuary Campuses’
The Chicago Sun-Times editorial board is now asking that every college and university in the state be transformed into ‘sanctuary campuses’ for shielding illegal immigrants from federal law. In a piece , “Make colleges a sanctuary from deportation threat,” asks that every college and university in Illinois risk losing federal funding for the cause: Universities have an obligation to stand up for their students – all of them.
Gang member sentenced in teenage sex trafficking case
A North Park gang member was sentenced to 5 years in prison for his role in a racketeering scheme that involved sex trafficking, drug sales and robbery – a sentence that was followed up hours later with a notice of appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Tony Brown, who lives in the Phoenix area, was one of 24 people to be indicted in 2013 on accusations of committing crimes on behalf of BMS Enterprise, made up of two gangs named Skanless and Black Mob.
Philly cops under Richard Ross: Steady as she goes44 minutes ago
Dozens of local and national journalists in late July packed into the bunkerlike room in the city’s Office of Emergency Management on Spring Garden Street, hurling questions at six Philadelphia officials about the impending Democratic National Convention. The performance, in retrospect, was quintessential Ross: measured, self-assured, and steeled by nearly three decades in the Philadelphia Police Department.
Philly cops under Richard Ross: Steady as she goes44 minutes ago
Dozens of local and national journalists in late July packed into the bunkerlike room in the city’s Office of Emergency Management on Spring Garden Street, hurling questions at six Philadelphia officials about the impending Democratic National Convention. The performance, in retrospect, was quintessential Ross: measured, self-assured, and steeled by nearly three decades in the Philadelphia Police Department.
‘This has been going on for too long’: In Evangeline Parish arrest…
Alonzo Leday talks about his community’s relationship with law enforcement as a Ville Platte Police unit passes by on Edward “Knotoe” Thomas Jr. Street Thursday, December 29, 2016, in Ville Platte, La. A Ville Platte Police officer patrols and speaks with residents on Edward “Knotoe” Thomas Jr. Street Thursday, December 29, 2016, in Ville Platte, La.
Advocates of hate crimes law ready to try again
When advocates for a hate-crimes bill took their case to the Legislature last year, their cause was quickly overshadowed by a separate effort to expand the state’s civil rights law to include LGBT protections. The latter measure, which ultimately failed, became known derisively as the “bathroom bill” with opponents who claimed, falsely, that it would allow predatory men to sneak into women’s restrooms.
Lackawanna County Prison Board may request jail review after misconduct allegations
The Lackawanna County Prison Board may request another agency perform a top-to-bottom review of the county jail after the latest round of investigations into sexual misconduct allegations at the facility wrap up. Lackawanna County Judge Vito Geroulo, chairman of the prison board, said he plans to recommend the panel ask the state Department of Corrections to study the facility when the “appropriate” time comes – meaning the new review wouldn’t overlap with efforts by prosecutors.
Lackawanna County Prison Board may request jail review after misconduct allegations
The Lackawanna County Prison Board may request another agency perform a top-to-bottom review of the county jail after the latest round of investigations into sexual misconduct allegations at the facility wrap up. Lackawanna County Judge Vito Geroulo, chairman of the prison board, said he plans to recommend the panel ask the state Department of Corrections to study the facility when the “appropriate” time comes – meaning the new review wouldn’t overlap with efforts by prosecutors.